The Systems Masterclass

How to Claim Back Your Life Once and For All!

Bill Gates famously said “The first rule of any technology used in a business is that automation applied to an efficient operation will magnify the efficiency. The second rule is that automation applied to an inefficient operation will magnify the inefficiency.” Most people in business get to experience both of those sensations at one time or another.

Remember that dream you had about getting into property?…

You would make more money, you’ll get more sleep, you’ll have more holidays and generally your life will become easier. Sigh…

And then the reality kicks in and you realise you have to do just about every job yourself, you’re the first to start work and the last to finish, you put the big holiday off for another year, and everyone seems to be getting paid except for you! Doh!

You may have heard the line: “When I was employed I used to work for an idiot, now I’m an entrepreneur, I work for a psychopath!”

We totally get that! Because if you are anything like us, you will have often found yourself up in the wee small hours doing the paperwork after a long hard day. But no more…

Because as soon as you understand the power of good solid SYSTEMS, you’ll be trying to systemise anything that moves… you won’t be able to stop yourself!

We have a sign in our office that says: ‘DELETE, AUTOMATE, DELEGATE’. Whatever tasks we do, we make sure they are of high value to the business. Oh, and Emily recently added ‘CELEBRATE’ to the above list!

Poor or no systems, will create a downward spiral of relentless fire-fighting and that horrible feeling of perpetual overwhelm, day after relentless day. Poor systems stifle growth, and are the number one reason most property businesses become stagnant within a few years.

The good news is poor systems can easily be fixed, if you are willing to focus some laser-like attention in that area.

We have been working on systemising and automating everything that moves in our property business for the last few years, and consequently we now only NEED to visit our Rent 2 Rents and owned HMOs once a year … but we hope to be reducing that MASSIVE workload sometime soon!

Most people want a business that is both profitable AND enjoyable to operate, and yet they totally neglect the SYSTEMS part of their business until it becomes unbearable, and then they are FORCED to implement systems.

Wouldn’t it be better to implement great systems from day one?

The dictionary describes a system as ‘a collection of elements or components that are organized for a common purpose’. This is a good two dimensional summary, but it doesn’t really explain the BENEFITS of great systems, of which we think there are principally four:

 

Creating and implementing good Systems into your business is not just essential, it is absolutely crucial to its long term survival, sustainability, growth and maybe your mental and even your physical health. Truly!

Many start-up business owners complain of working flat out but not being able to create a decent profit to match all their hard work, or of being constantly stressed out, exhausted and anxious and have a long suffering and unhappy spouse.

The solution is to spend some laser-focused time creating solid Systems and processes that will actually work.

The more you focus on improving your business Systems, the better results you will consistently achieve and the more efficient and profitable your business will become. It really is as simple as that. You may also have to spend a little time working on yourself and purifying your working environment?

 

‘Bad Systems Can Destroy Good People!’

Suggested Read

Here at MLCS HQ we love the work of Sam Carpenter, who suggests attacking the ‘systemisation’ of your business by first creating your Strategic Objective, followed by your General Operating Principles and finally, your Working Procedures. His book ‘Work the System’ is available from his website as a free downloadable audio, and we recommend you give it a listen.

So how do you begin to systemise your business? There is an infinite and baffling amount of online applications, property-related software, accounting software, uploads, downloads and apps; the list goes on and on. Then there are the systems for locating Rent 2 Rent properties, inventories, finding tenants, signing them in, collecting rent, responding to missing rent, checking them out, etc. These are all fairly simple systems and processes that can be easily learned, but first there may be another area that needs your immediate attention… YOU!

 

Step One ZEN

The first step (and for many the most painful) is to ZEN your computer desktop, your actual desktop, your workspace and possibly yourself! You know all those eBooks that you’ll never get around to reading, and those piles of paper on your desk, and the folders on the floor? They could be creating a FOG in your mind and in your life, and could actually be slowing your progress down to a snail’s pace. If you struggle with de-cluttering, ask a ruthless ‘friend’ to help you, and expect a few tantrums.

Most people are literally drowning in a tsunami of emails, and this might also need ‘Zenn’ing’? First rule; ruthlessly unsubscribe from any organisation that is constantly distracting you from your primary goal. Sometimes it’s faster to delete them, but this is really counter-productive as they will keep on stalking your inbox!

Tough as it may be, you must act like a merciless pirate and take no prisoners! Watching your inbox clutter reducing day by day will release endorphins into your body as the feel good factor increases, until one day you will be greeted with a completely empty inbox … can you imagine!

Remember to sync all your devices so that you can deal with emails on your downtime, ie, travelling, queuing and waiting
(unless of course you have already outsourced these activities!)

 

Step Two LEVERAGE

You may be struggling with lack of time, and you can fix this by leveraging others. Do you know what your hourly rate is? This is mega-important! You must know your hourly rate to fully understand your value so that you can focus solely on the things that are most valuable to you in reaching your financial goals. This will enable you to identify and outsource low value tasks. Work out what you want to earn in the next twelve months and divide that by 226 (There are 260 Monday to Friday work-days in a year, minus an average of 34 days for holidays and bank holidays, and of course as an entrepreneur you are not allowed to be sick!) and this will give you your daily rate. Now think about how many hours you want to work in a day and divide the daily rate by number of hours. This will give you your hourly rate.

Next consider which tasks you are regularly doing that are lower than your hourly rate, plus all the jobs that you don’t really enjoy doing, and list them in the left hand column on a piece of paper. Beside each one write three names of capable people … and start calling them!

 

Step Three TRUST THE PROCESS

Perfect systems won’t suddenly appear overnight, and so you need to attack this methodically. Take another piece of paper and write a list of the things in your business that are causing you the most stress, or that are costing you the most in lost time and/or money. This is where you need to start focusing first. How can you ever hope to get ANYTHING under control if you are suffering a daily bout of ‘Headless Chicken Syndrome’. Now re-arrange them so that the most important is at the top of the list. If you have written ‘No Property Management Software’ , this is where you will need to focus your attention first (and we can help you with that).

If you struggle with lost documents and not being able to access essential contracts, etc, on the move, maybe you need to invest in a good cloud-based storage system first. Some people say that these days, either your business is in the clouds, or your head’s in the clouds. Do this sooner rather than later.

Repeat this for every section of your business. Identify it, shine a light on it, focus on it and fix it, and then move onto the next section. Bit by bit you will fine-tune every bit of your business and get them working as a whole with one purpose in mind; to make you More Money > More Often > More Easily! (OK, that was three!)

Soon will come a day when there is no more fire-fighting or chasing your tail, a day when everything comes into focus and you make an impulsive decision to spend the day at the Spa; this will be your personal LIBERATION DAY!

We have now pretty much leveraged ourselves out of our RENT 2 RENT business, and everything is as systemised as it can possibly be… well almost, there is always room for improvement after all.

We have bottled up ALL of our BEST, most efficient and time saving SYSTEMS, including the totally FREE PROPERTY MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE, and put them all into the latest of our best selling Mini-Manual series; The SYSTEMS MASTERCLASS.

This Mini-Manual details every time- and money-saving SYSTEM that literally gave us our lives back, including: Imperfect Systems, Your Business Plan, Your Property Manager, The Strategic Objective, General Operating Principles, Working Procedures, A New World Order, Eliminate, Delegate, Automate (and Celebrate!) A Paperless Office, E-Signing, Cloud-Based, Electronic Diaries, Which Office Equipment, Filing Systems, Managing Your Emails, Systemising Your Phone, Deploying Apps, Maintenance Day & Assigning Jobs, Interim Inspections, Utilities, Inventories, The trades-people Document, Materials Suppliers, Payment Day, House Manual, Admin Fees, Changeover Day, Late Payment Sequence, Zoho & Wave, Xero, Remote Management, Master Key, Key Safes and the Next Generation of Locks, Floor Plans, Auto Responders, Automated Tenant Find, Virtual Assistants vs Real People, Property Management & Maintenance plus a load more.

 

WHAT ABOUT THAT FREE PROPERTY MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE?

One of our best discoveries was the FREE Property Management Software we unearthed and integrated into our business. This is not some home-made hotch-botch job, this is top of the range software created by a large American company and used worldwide. We test drove it for 9 months, and customised all the apps before introducing it to our MLCS community, and they confirmed that it is better than B-R-I-L-L-I-A-N-T!

You can access this via a secret code in the Systems Masterclass Mini-Manual and leverage the nine months we have spent understanding how it works and creating and integrating SYSTEMS apps … so in actual fact all you will have to do is: create an account, download our templates, and enter your property details. It really is as simple as that, and we Guarantee you will absolutely love it! 🙂

You would normally pay thousands of £££’s pcm for this, and even then you would have to spend a LOT of time customising it for your needs.

Oh! Plus we have recorded a FREE training webinar for you that simplifies the whole process, and will notify you of any future updates to make sure you are completely up to speed. Cool.

This important SYSTEMS MASTERCLASS mini-manual contains absolutely ALL of the PROVEN systems that will help you easily Automate your Business and make you More Money > More Often > More Easily!

You will find this manual at www.multiletcashflowsystem.com >>> and then click on the ‘Store’ tab 🙂

PS… The Property Management Software alone will literally save you ££Thousands over the coming years! 🙂

Francis

To access your copy of the Systems Masterclass just click here